Lexi J. Hazam

An emerging leader within the plaintiffs’ bar, Lexi J. Hazam represents clients in mass tort cases and qui tam actions, as well as complex class actions.

Lexi represents hip replacement patients in the DePuy ASR, DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal, and Stryker Rejuvenate hip implant injury lawsuits, representing over 300 clients and working with leading regulatory experts. Lexi has been appointed by the court overseeing the nationwide Abilify gambling injuries MDL litigation to the Plaintiffs Executive Committee and the Science and Expert Sub-Committee for the case, and was also appointed by the court overseeing the nationwide Benicar MDL litigation to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee therein, and serves as Co-Chair of the Benicar MDL Plaintiffs’ Science and Experts Committee. She has also spoken at several conferences on Benicar injuries and Benicar lawsuits.

Lexi has spoken at two conferences for plaintiffs’ counsel on the DePuy litigation. She has also spoken on mass torts topics at the Women En Mass conference for women in mass torts, the annual CAOC conference, and the California Lawyer’s Product Liability Roundtable, and serves on Law360’s Product Liability Advisory Board.

Lexi’s qui tam cases include the $21.7 million settlement of litigation against Avaya, Lucent Technologies, and AT&T for charging governmental agencies for the lease of communications systems they no longer possessed and/or were no longer maintained by defendants. She worked on the Office Depot qui tam litigation, a lawsuit alleging that Office Depot knowingly overcharged California cities, counties, and school districts on office and school supplies purchased under U.S. Communities contracts, that settled in 2015 for $68.5 million. Lexi has also worked on several additional qui tam cases alleging Medicare fraud. Lexi has been a speaker on the California Lawyer’s False Claims Act Roundtable.

Lexi previously represented hemophiliacs worldwide, or their survivors and estates, who contracted HIV and/or Hepatitis C from contaminated blood factor products in America. A confidential settlement was reached in 2009. Lexi played a key role in litigating the case and in negotiating and administering a settlement of the claims of 1,600 clients in 15 countries, utilizing her multilingual skills in working with co-counsel on several continents. The blood factor litigation constitutes one of the only, if not the only, case in which major U.S. pharmaceutical companies entered a settlement with plaintiffs worldwide. Lexi also has significant experience representing the families of victims in major international aviation disasters, including the crash of Gol Airlines Flight 1907 in Brazil in 2006.

Lexi’s class action practice includes representing nursing home patients of Evergreen and Kindred facilities who received deficient care due to understaffing. A settlement in the Evergreen case includes an injunction requiring adequate staffing for several years, without any release of claims by the class. Combined with related cases against other leading nursing home facilities, the litigation is helping to create a new standard for the staffing of nursing homes in California.

In 2018, Lexi was elected Vice-Chair of the American Association for Justice’s Section on Qui Tam Litigation, having previously served as Co-Secretary of the section. In 2016, Lexi was elected as Chair Elect of the American Association for Justice’s Section on Toxic, Environmental, and Pharmaceutical Torts (STEP), having previously served in 2015 as Vice-Chair of that section. Lexi was also selected in 2015 for the AAJ Leadership Academy and the Sedona Conference Working Group 1 Drafting Team for the Primer on Technology-Assisted Review. Lexi has also served on the Court Funding and Litigation Challenge Group Task Force of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Diversity Committee of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association.

Published Works

•“Technology-Assisted Review: Advice for Requesting Parties, ” Practical Law, October/November 2016

Classes/Seminars

•“Floods, Fires & Hurricanes, Oh My! - Litigating Climate Change, ” American Bar Association, Toxic Torts & Environmental Law Committee Conference, April 4-6 2019
•“Supreme Court Review of Escobar, ” Qui Tam Litigation Group, American Association for Justice Annual Convention, Boston 2017
•“Discovery Following the 2015 Federal Rules Amendments: What Does Proportionality Mean in the Class Action and Mass Tort Contexts? ” American Bar Association 4th Annual Western Regional CLE Program on Class Actions and Mass Torts, San Francisco 2017
•“Increasing the Number of Women and Minority Lawyers Appointed to Leadership Positions in Class Actions and MDLs, ” Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies Conference, Atlanta 2017
•“2015 Rules Amendments, ” “ Search Methodology and Technology, ” “ New Forms of Communications and Data Protection, ” Innovation in eDiscovery Conference, San Francisco 2016
•“Technology-Assisted Review,” Sedona Conference Working Group 1 Drafting Team, 2015
•“The Benicar Litigation,” Mass Torts Made Perfect, Las Vegas 2015
•“The Benicar Litigation, ” HarrisMartin’s MDL Conference, San Diego 2015
•“Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: The Skill of Finding, Retaining, and Preparing Expert Witnesses For Trial,” Women En Mass, Aspen 2014

Honors and Awards

•Selected for inclusion by peers in The Best Lawyers in America in fields of “Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions - Plaintiffs” and “Qui Tam Law,” 2015-2020
•“Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers in America,” Lawdragon, 2020
•“Super Lawyer for Northern California,” Super Lawyers, 2015-2019
•“Lawyer of the Year,” The Best Lawyers in America, Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions-Plaintiffs for San Francisco, 2017
•“California Litigation Star,” Benchmark Litigation, 2016
•“California Future Star,” Benchmark Litigation, 2015
•Legal 500 recommended lawyer, LegalEase, 2013
•“Rising Star for Northern California,” Super Lawyers, 2009-2011, 2013

Past Employment Positions

•Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Law Clerk, 1999
•Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Law Clerk, 2001 - 2002
•Lieff Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, Associate, 2002 - 2006
•Lieff Global LLP, Partner, 2006 - 2008

In the News

•April 17, 2018
Lieff Cabraser Attorneys to Speak at HarrisMartin’s Upcoming Southern California Wildfires & Mudslide Litigation Conference
•March 29, 2018
Three Lieff Cabraser Attorneys Selected for Law360’s Practice Group Editorial Advisory Boards
•March 19, 2018
Lexi Hazam Discusses Abilify Litigation at Mass Torts Made Perfect Conference
•September 13, 2017
Lexi Hazam Speaks at HarrisMartin’s National Opioid Litigation Conference
•July 21, 2017
Lexi Hazam Discusses Supreme Court Review of Escobar at AAJ Annual Convention